This morning before going in to work I was privileged to be invited with others from the local community to meet with Councillor Dann, the Mayor of Hillingdon, in the Mayor's parlour in Uxbridge. Councillor Dann had invited small groups of people who are involved in local voluntary groups such as Help the Aged, Cancer Research fundraising, community outreach, art and charity groups etc to meet her and see the different memorabilia in the parlour. Suffice to say that I suffered from another bout of bling envy!!I was there as part of a group who organise the British Tanzanian society, raising funds and awareness for people in need in Tanzania. I met Elizabeth and Ron Fennell some time ago at Westminster Central Hall and they were responsible for hospitality to the Masai warriors who were in the UK to run the London Marathon in aid of their home village. I had a little involvement in their programme, although sadly was in Cameroon when the warriors were here, and was invited to join this group this morning. The Mayor had been impressed by a concert Elizabeth and Ron had arranged with visiting blind musicians which was held at Central Hall to raise money and this invitation was in recognition of this.
It was a great opportunity to hear of the work of the different voluntary groups and the work of the Mayor and I was very impressed by these people working in the Borough where I live. So many people give of their time freely for the benefit of others and our communities are the richer for it.
1 comment:
One group of people who give a great deal of time are local councillors, one of whom you met this morning - some people are not aware that their Mayor is a local politician.
Whilst rightly the Churches have, in recent years, focussed on urging people not to vote for parties of the far right I hope we will all take part in the local elections on Thursday.
All those who stand, canvass and work for political parties are doing so much to underpin and support civil society, win or lose. They need our encouragement and one way of doing that is simply by exercising our right - and in my view our duty - to vote.
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